You may not need to be fingerprinted, even if your filing receipt from the Authority says so

After a new application is filed, a filing receipt is issued with the serial number of the case, the date the application was considered received by the Authority (which can be 1-3 weeks after actual physical receipt of the application) and a list of who must be fingerprinted for the application to be processed. Fingerprinting costs $126 per person. If the person is present in the State of New York, he or she must make an online appointment through Morphotrus or Identigo to be electronically fingerprinted at one of its offices. If the person is outside New York, old fashioned hardcopy fingerprint cards must be submitted in duplicate, along with a form and processing fee. (We always recommend that 4 cards be completed by the person because the first set has a high probability of being smudged, smeared, unreadable or otherwise defective.)

If the fingerprints are not received by the Liquor Authority within 10 days, the application can be denied and the applicant must start the process over again (and your documents will not be sent back to be used again – you must do them all over again).

However, Licensing Unit 6 has alerted us that any person who has had an active application or license within the recent 6 months period should call the Authority ((518) 474-3114) and have the fingerprints transferred from the prior case to the new case rather than have a new set processed by Morphotrust. Licensing Unit 6 indicates that this is the responsibility of the person whose print it is or the applicant and failure to do so will result in loss of the unnecessary filing fee to have a new set of prints taken. The Authority acknowledges that there are mistakes and inconsistencies in the processing of fingerprint records at its end and that person must initiate this process himself or herself.

In the case we had pending today, we had 3 principals who were requested to be fingerprinted on the filing receipt. Two were on a previously pending application. Both followed the instructions to be fingerprinted again. One was accepted, the other was rejected by the Authority and it transferred the prints from the prior application without explanation and mailed back the fingerprint cards unprocessed. When we called to ask why they were rejected, Licensing Unit 6 indicated that the Authority decided to use the prints from the earlier application and that it was now an affirmative responsibility of any applicant to call the Authority and request the prints to be transferred on any case that was active in the preceding 6 months. We asked why this action was taken for only one of the two and Licensing Unit 6 indicated it had no way to know how or why there was inconsistent treatment of the two principals.

Now that we have been advised of this new procedure, we are passing the word to other applicants and representatives, as well as having our clients call before scheduling an appointment to be printed.

About Tracy Jong

Tracy Jong has been an attorney for more than 20 years,      representing restaurants, bars, and craft beverage manufacturers in a wide array of legal matters. She is also a licensed patent attorney.

Her book Everything You Need To Know About Obtaining and Maintaining a New York Retail Liquor License: The Definitive Guide to Navigating the State Liquor Authority will be available next month on Amazon.com as a softcover and Kindle e-book.

Her legal column is available in The Equipped Brewer, a publication giving business advice, trends, and vendor reviews to help craft breweries, cideries, distilleries and wineries build brands and succeed financially.

She also maintains a website and blog with practical information on legal and business issues affecting the industry. Follow her, sign up for her free firm app or monthly newsletter.